Hi Sara, I see Joan has sent you a link for DNA testing, so I will deal with the aspect of testing for Jewishness. Up to about two months ago, I would have said that you would have had to be male to test for Jewishness, and only for one particular line of Jews, that is, the descendants of Priests, (not Rabbis). This is a test for the so-called Cohenic (or as pronounced Kohanic) gene. If you were male and descended from a Priest long forgotten you would have this gene and that would have shown your Jewishness. You will see Cohanim on the website and I am sure you will know what that means. This test was able to prove that a group of people (Africans) in South Africa, who claimed to have practised Judaism, and were thus Jews from time immemorial, were descended from a Priest or Cohen. For female ancestry we have long known that you can use mitochondrial DNA, but I do not think that you can tell a person's Jewishness from that unless you combine it with a genealogy which connects you to a line of Jews. But about two months ago I learnt that analysis can obtain both X and Y chromosomal data from mitochondrial DNA. But this means that unless you have the Kohanic gene you would not be able to establish your Jewishness from this mitochondrial DNA test alone. I hope this helps. Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sara Weiss" <ksara@tesco.net> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 3:54 PM Subject: Re: DNA testing > Do you know, or does anyone know, where I could get DNA testing and would it prove my Jewishness? > > Sadie Weiss > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alba Dunlop" <adunlop@ilap.com> > To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 11:33 PM > Subject: Re: DNA testing > > > > Thanks again for your help. Yes the Jewish side of the family tree has yielded a gold mine of information. I was so surprised to find > > all this information was there and had survived after all the upheavals and persecutions through out the ages. > > Alba > > > > Rory McGregor wrote: > > > > > This I am not sure about and I think actually the best thing is to go to the > > > website www.familytreedna.com and send them an email. They should be able > > > to answer. Just to note one of their biggest projects is to trace Jewish > > > DNA so their database could be quite useful to you. > > > > > > > > > ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== > > ROOTSWEB MAILING LIST HELP PAGES > > What is a Mailing List? > > http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/help/mail1.html > > > > > ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== > all messages posted to CARIBBEAN-L are archived at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Before posting a query, see if the question has already been asked > >

"Richard Allicock" wrote: >about two months ago I learnt that analysis can obtain both X and Y >chromosomal data from mitochondrial DNA. ... A reference for this knowledge would be appreciated.